It comes two months after a serious crash cost a worker his leg, and as he told WISN 12 News reporter Nick Bohr in an exclusive interview, he nearly lost his life.

Many have seen the signs in road construction zones warning them to slow down or face double fines. That could soon be the case for driving near garbage crews, under a bill to be introduced at the state Capitol on Friday, after the near-death of a Jefferson County man.

Emergency workers rushed to the scene near Stoughton on Jan. 5 to find Mark Friend pinned between his garbage truck and the car of a driver who, according to police reports, never slowed down. The outlook was grim as MedFlight rushed him to UW Hospital.

"I was told I was a miracle at the hospital. Every single thing had to go perfect in order for me to live. And the lord above, and everybody around me praying for me, is what kept me alive," Mark Friend said.

After two weeks in a coma, two months in the hospital, Friend made it home to Ixonia last week. The Marine veteran's leg is gone but not his humor.

"The leg that got taken, I had USMC tattooed on the back of it, so maybe on my prosthetic we're gonna have it airbrushed back on there," Friend said.

Six months earlier, Friend told Assembly candidate John Jagler he was worried it was just a matter of time before a garbage worker got seriously hurt by a driver.

"It was very stunning to me that here he had warned that this was going to happen, that something needed to be done, and there was evidence that it should be done, and then it happened to him. It just floored me," Jagler said.

It moved the newly-elected assemblyman to write a bill.

"It just simply says any moving violation, going around a garbage truck, is doubled," Jagler said.

To protect his friends, and even a brother, working on garbage trucks, Friend said he's called to get the word out.

"My wife has a husband. I get to be a father, and I get to be a husband. I get to have a second chance at life. And that second chance I have to take advantage of," Friend said.

A trade group is also going distribute warning signs to every garbage truck in the state

Jagler said he's hoping Friend's story will impact drivers as much as the signs that could soon be on garbage trucks statewide.